Zhao Xintong’s bid to defend the World Snooker Championship is over, and with it another attempt to break one of the sport’s strangest patterns. The defending champion was beaten 13-10 by Shaun Murphy in the quarter-finals at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre on Wednesday, ending his run and keeping alive the long-standing “Crucible curse” — the idea that no first-time world champion has managed to retain the title there since the tournament moved to Sheffield in 1977.
That’s the hard fact of it. Zhao, who made history in 2025 by becoming the first Asian player to win snooker’s biggest title, arrived this year carrying both momentum and expectation. He had already come through Liam Highfield in the opening round and then beat Ding Junhui 13-9 in a much-anticipated all-Chinese last-16 clash. For a while, it really did feel like he might be the player to shrug off the old superstition. He wasn’t.
Murphy, though, had other ideas. The 2005 champion recovered from an early wobble in the match and gradually took control, closing out a 13-10 win to reach the semi-finals. It was another reminder that Murphy, at 43, is still more than capable of handling the furnace of the Crucible when the stakes rise. His victory also pushed him into a last-four meeting with John Higgins, while the other semi-final featured Mark Allen against Wu Yize.
The “curse” can sound a bit theatrical, maybe even a little silly, until another defending champion gets caught by it. But the record is stubborn. From the moment the World Championship found its modern home at the Crucible, every maiden winner who came back the following year has failed to lift the trophy again. Zhao is simply the latest name added to that list. In snooker, where pressure has a way of showing up in tiny misses and rushed safety shots, these patterns tend to take on a life of their own.
There’s a wider story here too, and it matters. Zhao’s title run last year was seen as a landmark moment for the sport, particularly in China and across Asia, where snooker’s audience has grown enormously over the past two decades. His progress this year — especially the match with Ding — only sharpened the sense that Chinese snooker is no longer knocking on the door of the sport’s elite; it’s already in the room. Even in defeat, Zhao remains one of the game’s most significant figures, not just because of what he’s won, but because of what his success represents.
For Murphy, the win was a statement. He had already come through tricky matches against Fan Zhengyi and Xiao Guodong before taking out the reigning champion, and his run has put him back in serious contention for a second world title. Reports around the tournament have also pointed to his altered break-off approach and a notably calmer mindset as part of what’s working for him in Sheffield this year. Sometimes those little shifts matter more than people think.
For Zhao, the loss will sting. Defending at the Crucible is hard enough without carrying the weight of history on your shoulders, and once a narrative like this starts circling a player, it never really stays outside the arena. Still, quarter-final exits don’t erase what he has already done. He remains the first Asian world champion, still only 29, and still one of the most naturally gifted attacking players in the game. The curse got him this time. That doesn’t mean his story is anywhere near finished.
